Understanding Brits

Henry Braun · Apr 3, 2003

On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Colin Blackburn wrote:

> Henry, zebus is what used to arrive at the "Fantasy Island (with a tidal access path.)" That
> series didn't do as well as its more well known cousin.

Google has no more idea what you're getting at than I do, as far as I can see. You would dismount
from zebus, although with that hump I think a Tabor saddle might be safer.

Colin Blackburn · Apr 3, 2003

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> In message <MPG.18f64fae2c2a44349898b2@localhost>, Colin Blackburn
> <[email protected]> writes
> >I have no idea what debus, unbus or rebus mean.
>
> Rebus - a puzzle consisting of pictures, symbols, etc., representing syllables and words; a
> heraldic device that is a pictorial representation of the name of the bearer.
>
> Thought you might want to know that. On the other hand perhaps not! ;-)

I did know that. I would, perhaps, have been clearer saying, "I have no idea what de-bus, un-bus or
re-bus mean."

Henry, zebus is what used to arrive at the "Fantasy Island (with a tidal access path.)" That series
didn't do as well as its more well known cousin.

Colin

Peter Clinch · Apr 3, 2003

Henry Braun wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Colin Blackburn wrote:
>
>>Henry, zebus is what used to arrive at the "Fantasy Island (with a tidal access path.)" That
>>series didn't do as well as its more well known cousin.
>
> Google has no more idea what you're getting at than I do, as far as I can see.

It probably does with the right search terms. Try adding "Knick-knack", "bad" cult" and "TV" to the
search terms... ;-)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email protected]
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Colin Blackburn · Apr 3, 2003

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> Henry Braun wrote:
> > On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Colin Blackburn wrote:
> >
> >>Henry, zebus is what used to arrive at the "Fantasy Island (with a tidal access path.)" That
> >>series didn't do as well as its more well known cousin.
> >
> > Google has no more idea what you're getting at than I do, as far as I can see.
>
> It probably does with the right search terms. Try adding "Knick-knack", "bad" cult" and "TV" to
> the search terms... ;-)

I tried "fantasy island" "ze" "bus", but got a lot of dutch web pages about holidays in Hawaii.

Colin

Al_mossah · Apr 3, 2003

I finkits ve casting director of East Enders wot controls ve langwage, jenowadamean?

"Tony W" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "al_Mossah" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Divided by a common language! Have you ever been on a US 'plane when,
on
> > landing, the cabin service director informs the passengers that the
doors
> > will open "momentarily". The Brits immediately panic, assuming that the doors will open FOR a
> > moment, whereas the Americans assume that they
will
> > open IN a moment.
> >
> > The Americans have "gotten" things, whereas we have "got" them. But we
> have
> > "forgotten" things, whilst the Americans have "forgot" things.
> >
> > I love it.
>
>
> While the Germans were modifying the rules of spelling and grammar
recently
> (well, within the last 6 or 7 year) I was asked, in all seriousness, at a party who controlled the
> English language. They thought my initial laugh somewhat rude. I never did know if they fully
> appreciated the concept of anarchy that reigns supreme.
>
> Anyway, I have less problem with Americans than with my teenage nephew & niece -- who seem to
> speak a completely different argot.
>
> T

Wafflycathcsdir · Apr 3, 2003

>And you missed out "zebus".

As in Franglais "'ave I missed zebus m'sewer?"

~~~~~~~~~~
Flush out that intestinal parasite and/or the waste product before sending a reply!

Any speeliong mistake$ aR the resiult of my cats sitting on the keyboaRRRDdd
~~~~~~~~~~

Eatmorepies · Apr 3, 2003

> Anyway, I have less problem with Americans than with my teenage nephew & niece -- who seem to
> speak a completely different argot.
>
> T

Too true. Last year I remarked to one of my upper sixth boys that a particular girl looked fit - he
looked at me askance. I meant that even as a PE student she seemed to have an above average and
efficient cardio-vascular facility. We eventually understood each other.

John

Michael Macclan · Apr 3, 2003

In message <[email protected]>, Eatmorepies
<[email protected]> writes
>
>> Anyway, I have less problem with Americans than with my teenage nephew & niece -- who seem to
>> speak a completely different argot.
>>
>> T
>
>Too true. Last year I remarked to one of my upper sixth boys that a particular girl looked fit - he
>looked at me askance. I meant that even as a PE student she seemed to have an above average and
>efficient cardio-vascular facility. We eventually understood each other.
>
>John
>
>

Crikey! How old are you? I'm over 40 and I know (and use) that ambiguity.
--
Michael MacClancy

Congokid · Apr 3, 2003

In article <MPG.18f64fae2c2a44349898b2@localhost>, Colin Blackburn
<[email protected]> writes
>
>You alight. It's a perfectly good word. To bus is to move people about by bus, it isn't "to get on
>a bus", so I have no idea what debus, unbus or rebus mean. Perhaps you deboarded? De-unalighted?

It's all beginning to sound like Dubya-speak as in Dead Ringers.

--
congokid Eating out in London? Read my tips... http://congokid.com

Congokid · Apr 3, 2003

In article <[email protected]>, Peter Clinch
<[email protected]> writes

>Verbing nouns only bothers me when it comes as part of management-speak. We're now expected to
>action things where we used to just do them which grates a bit, but trashing stuff is just fine...

We have a lot of that in PR - it's very impactful, going forward.

--
congokid Eating out in London? Read my tips... http://congokid.com

Mr R@T \ -Lsqco · Apr 3, 2003

In news:MPG.18f6549d685da1119898b4@localhost, Colin Blackburn <[email protected]> typed:
> In article <l8f*[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
>> Colin Blackburn <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> The guard on a broken down Virgin train I was on invited the passengers to detrain. Ugh.
>>

ISTR reading on some froup that "detrain" *was* correctly used in UK English, but as a technical
term by railway workers to describe the process of decoupling the locomotive and carriages into
separate units of rolling stock rather than removing the *passengers* from the train.

"Passengers are invited to detrain because de train has derailed?"

Alex

GearóId Ó Laoi · Apr 3, 2003

> People make too much of this 'divided by a common language' nonsense, anyway. Nothing that a
> little sensitivity and attention can't solve.

It's deeper than you think. An American may not mean what you understand him to mean, and
vice versa.

Two friends of mine were on the tube in New York and someone tried to bum a cigarette off one of
them. The other said "What does he want?"

"Oh, he's looking for a ***", says the other. There was a shocked silence as the carriage emptied.

Another Irish chap I know of could not understand for some weeks the reactions of his workmates in
the US to him until he worked it out. He had been in the habit of saying "I'm going to town on
Saturday cos there's always great crack down there".

Alex Graham · Apr 4, 2003

Colin Blackburn wrote:

> The guard on a broken down Virgin train I was on invited the passengers to detrain. Ugh.

They love that on the tube: "The delay is caused by a de-trainment in the next station" They make it
sound like an accident, as if the train ceased to be a train - spontaneous combustion?...

--

-Alex

----------------------------------
[email protected]

http://alexpg.ath.cx:3353/cycling.php http://www.westerleycycling.org.uk
----------------------------------

Peter Clinch · Apr 4, 2003

Colin Blackburn wrote:

> I tried "fantasy island" "ze" "bus", but got a lot of dutch web pages about holidays in Hawaii.

<TEDIOUS_EXPLANATION> Fantasy Island was a shite 70s TV show, where rich folk arrived on said island
to have their dreams fulfilled. The start had the Big Cheese's personal assistant, Tatoo (not
Knick-Knack, my mistake, K-K was the character the same diminutive actor played in The Man With The
Golden Gun, PA to Christopher Lee's villain Scaramanga) excitedly hooting "Ze Plane, Ze Plane" as
said plane brought that week's guests to the island.

There wasn't actually a bus in the original, which might have thrown the Great Google somewhat...
</TEDIOUS_EXPLANATION>

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email protected]
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Al_mossah · Apr 4, 2003

Isn't Debus a French Composer?

"Henry Braun" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news

[email protected]...
> On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Colin Blackburn wrote:
> > > Come on now - on a Holts battlefield tour in Belgium we "de-bus" when alighting from the
> > > coach!
> >
> > You alight. It's a perfectly good word. To bus is to move people about by bus, it isn't "to get
> > on a bus", so I have no idea what debus, unbus or rebus mean. Perhaps you deboarded?
> > De-unalighted?
>
> A rebus is a word-puzzle, representing the sign by the thing signified, as any fule kno. And you
> missed out "zebus".
>
> From a bus, as from any other vehicle, you disembark. It's a slightly illogical term, if you're
> not aboard a bark (or vessel) to begin with, but no more so than for us cyclists to dismount.

Tony W · Apr 4, 2003

"al_Mossah" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Isn't Debus a French Composer?

Your thinking of the Spanish painter De-car.

Michael Macclan · Apr 4, 2003

In message <[email protected]>, Tony W <[email protected]> writes
>
>"al_Mossah" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Isn't Debus a French Composer?
>
>Your thinking of the Spanish painter De-car.
>
>
And the French mathematician and philosopher.
--
Michael MacClancy

Colin Blackburn · Apr 4, 2003

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> In message <[email protected]>, Tony W <[email protected]> writes
> >
> >"al_Mossah" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >news:[email protected]...
> >> Isn't Debus a French Composer?
> >
> >Your thinking of the Spanish painter De-car.
> >
> >
> And the French mathematician and philosopher.

De-cart came from the days before the infernal combustion engine. He might even have come
before de horse.

Colin

Farmer Alfalfa · Apr 4, 2003

"al_Mossah" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Isn't Debus a French Composer?

Don't you mean Debius, the British composer?

F A

Jim Price · Apr 4, 2003

Gearóid Ó Laoi, Garry Lee wrote:
> It's deeper than you think. An American may not mean what you understand him to mean, and
> vice versa.

(snipped funny examples)

Just getting a hire car from the airport to a hotel has hidden pitfalls for us "Brits". All the cars
seemed to be automatic, so I asked if they had a manual. I was told that it would be in the glove
compartment. I got directions which included the instruction "exit right at the ramp", and got lost
looking for a big red sign and a step change in the road level (ramp = slip road).

My favourite, though, was overheard at the airport. Two 'mericans in front of me were discussing
champange, and one said to the other "My wife prefers that no-name brand called brut". Images of
drinking fizzy aftershave left me speechless.

JimP

Understanding Brits

Henry Braun

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Colin Blackburn

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Peter Clinch

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Colin Blackburn

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Al_mossah

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Wafflycathcsdir

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Eatmorepies

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Michael Macclan

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Congokid

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Congokid

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Mr R@T \ -Lsqco

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GearóId Ó Laoi

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Alex Graham

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Peter Clinch

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Al_mossah

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Tony W

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Michael Macclan

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Colin Blackburn

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Farmer Alfalfa

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Jim Price

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